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Nine months after it was first launched in the US, Apple’s iPad has finally made its way into India. Apple’s India Store is now showing the iPad, which starts from Rs 27,900 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi only version and goes up to Rs 44,900 for the 64 GB 3G+Wi-Fi version. State-owned carrier, BSNL, has announced special iPad 3G plans for both prepaid and postpaid subscribers that offers unlimited data usage for Rs 999.

Qualcomm and Duracell today announced that the two companies are exploring to work together to bring wireless charging to consumer devices. Qualcomm’s WiPower technology uses radio frequencies to transfer energy over short distances between a charging pad with a transmitter and devices that have a built-in chipset. The two companies will try to achieve an industry-wide standard for wireless charging and help OEMs to incorporate it in their gadgets. Hit the break for the complete press release while we go look for our charging cable.

Sony Ericsson has launched the first of its many XPERIA smartphones scheduled for the year. If you find the XPERIA X10 stunning, the XPERIA arc will blow your minds off. Just 8.7 mm at its thinnest point, the arc sports an 8.1 MP camera, an HDMI connector and all the works that you’d expect in a modern day smartphone.

The arc’s 4.2-inch 854×480 pixel display might sound pedestrian in the age of ‘Retina Displays’ but Sony Ericsson claims that Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine in the phone will make it one of the best displays out there.

And yes, it runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and Sony Ericsson tells us that it should hit stores around March this year. The lovechild of Sony and Ericsson doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to meeting deadlines it sets for itself but we will certainly keeping our eyes peeled for this one.

The 7 Mozart has been launched with Tata DoCoMo for Rs 26,490. Tata DoCoMo subscribers will get some special data offer but the press release does not mention any details of this offer.

On the specs front, the Mozart 7 has a 3.7-inch WVGA display, an 8.0 MP camera with XENON flash that can shoot videos in 720p HD resolution, 8 GB of internal memory and a 1 GHz processor.

However, like the HD7, there is a catch. Microsoft has not launched Windows Phone 7 (the OS) in India yet so many features like XBOX Live support and Windows Marketplace are not available in India at the moment. Since HTC jumped the gun, in all likelihood, you’d end up using these Windows Phone 7 devices in India for calls, text messages, multimedia and browsing the Internet. Which is really a shame as the smartphone can do much more than that.

Having said that, many users might find the 7 Mozart as a great multimedia smartphone, especially considering the price point. Windows Phone 7 as an OS is much more usable than Symbian and the UI is more refined than Android. Yes, it does not multitask at the moment, but Microsoft is expected to launch an update soon (and we hear that all current Windows Phone 7 devices will be updated, unlike Android where the manufacturer decides which device gets an update and when). This update will bring both copy/paste and multitasking to the table.

However, if you still want Android (don’t get us wrong, we are die-hard Android users ourselves), HTC should be officially launching the Desire Z and the Desire HD in India any day now (we hear that these smartphones are already making their way to some retailers). So there is still some great gear coming up from the Taiwanese smartphone giant.